Flint School District lays off nurses to contract more help, but not all parents want to see their kids' nurses go

FLINT, Michigan — Flint School District Officials say a recent decision to lay off school nurses will allow them to offer more services to special needs students. Some parents fear just the opposite is true.

At the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year, the district's nurses will be replaced by contracted employees from a nursing agency. It's unclear how much money, if any, Flint will save with the move.

Contracting out for nurses allows the district to hire more paraprofessionals to help special needs kids, said Pat Gilcrest-Frazier, Flint's director of learning support services.

"You have to do things based on what the need is, and we've noticed that the need for educational services has gone up and the need for nursing services has stayed the same," she said.

But not all parents of special needs students are convinced and don't like the idea of an unfamiliar nurse tending to their children.

That may be especially true for the parents of Durant-Tuuri-Mott Elementary school, which is geared toward helping students who are physically, cognitively, vision or hearing- impaired. Of the school's 500 students this past year, about 150 had special needs, including cerebral palsy, severe asthma and the use of feeding tubes.

"They're not doing away with the nurse (position) altogether, but they're getting rid of our nurse. She's been there over 10 years. I mean, she knows every kid in that building better than anybody," said Angela Foster, whose son, Drew, has a disease making his bones so brittle they can break while he shifts in his chair.

Drew's nurse was Cindy Pepin, who Foster said was "absolutely devastated" after finding out she'd been let go.

"She would do anything for those kids and I just can't imagine them asking for anybody better. She's just so dedicated and she loves those students so much," Foster said.

That personal connection is something parents and school officials agree is necessary, but parents such as Foster and Lisa Oakman said they're not convinced their children will have that type of relationship with the incoming nurses.

Oakman said it took her 7-year-old daughter Gracie "a long time" to be comfortable with Pepin, who helped her take the medication preventing her seizures. After hearing the district pink-slipped all its nurses, she's afraid the process of gaining Gracie's trust will start all over again.

"I'm afraid these other nurses are going to come in for the first time, they're not going to have a clue what's wrong with my daughter, they're not going to know what side effects to look for. I mean, nurses are nurses but when you get someone that is going to work with specials needs children 24/7, I guess that's what I'm worried about," she said.

Gilcrest-Frazier said she had that concern in mind from the beginning.

"They will have the same nurse every day. It will be through an agency, but that was one of (Superintendent Linda Thompson's) things was that she wanted to know, would they provide the same nurse every day," she said. "I'm not using a temp agency ... we would never endanger the lives of our students."

Gilcrest-Frazier added that the district contracted two registered nurses, a licensed practical nurse and a certified nurse's assistant during the 2008-2009 school year in addition to the regular staff.

Allison Dedrick, who taught special needs students at Durant-Tuuri-Mott for 10 years before retiring last year, said the nurses might not realize what they're getting into at her old school.

"It's a rigorous job," she said. "Not so much the hours, but you might be sitting there for 15 minutes with nothing to do and all of a sudden all hell breaks loose, you got five kids puking, laying on the floor having seizures."

Dedrick said she wouldn't expect agency nurses to stick around long in that environment when other nursing jobs are available.

"My most important thing is that is has to be someone who is there daily, just for the consistency and knowledge of that particular child," she said.

Board of Education Presidents Vera Perry said she shares the parents' concerns.

"We want the administration to assure us that the service will be the same, and have that personal touch with it," she said. "All we can do is wait and see."

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